FBI Not Happy With Apple And Google’s Encryption Policy

Both Apple and Google have revealed that they will enable encryption by default on your smartphones and tablets. What this means is that neither company will know your smartphone’s or tablet’s passcode. And the announcement of implementing such stronger encryption in smartphones and tablets has made FBI very much disappointed as the agency will not be able to get any peoples’ data unless their data is stored in the cloud.

Google has announced that it would be providing data encryption by default with its next version of Android i.e. Android L. On the other hand, Apple’s iOS allows iPhone and iPad users to encrypt most personal data with a password. Besides, Apple has introduced enhanced encryption for iOS 8 devices under which it will no longer store the encryption keys for devices in iOS 8, making it impossible for the company to decrypt a locked device, even on law enforcement request.

Regarding this, Apple said in its new privacy policy, updated on Wednesday, “Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your pass code and therefore cannot access this data. So it’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.”

While most of the smartphone and tablet users are quite happy with the decision of these two companies, but at the same time, FBI is not at all happy with Apple and Google right now as such encryption will prevent law enforcement agencies’ hands on users’ private data.

Last Thursday, FBI Director James Comey said that he was “very concerned” over Apple and Google using stronger or full encryption in their smartphones and tablets that makes it impossible for cops and g-men to collar criminals. According to Comey, the Silicon Valley tech giants are “marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves above the law.”

Comey told reporters, “There will come a day – well it comes every day in this business – when it will matter a great, great deal to the lives of people of all kinds that we be able to with judicial authorization gain access to a kidnapper’s or a terrorist or a criminal’s device. I just want to make sure we have a good conversation in this country before that day comes. I’d hate to have people look at me and say, ‘Well how come you can’t save this kid,’ ‘How come you can’t do this thing.’”

Note that, such decision of Apple and Google is actually made in the response to the revelations of mass surveillance conducted by the NSA, revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden, that triggered a large-scale movement worldwide towards deploying encryption across all the Digital Services. Google’s announcement for by default encryption comes a day after Apple revealed that it is expanding its two-factor authentication process to include the iCloud storage system, which was recently targeted by hackers to extract over 100 nude celebrities photos.

Despite criticism from the FBI, it’s improbable that Apple or Google is going to step back from their efforts, because the technology companies again will not compromise with their reputation in the market where many are criticized in past to put backdoors in their products for law enforcement agencies. Lets wait and see where it ends.